


Please put your Secret Santa title here

by TomatoFujoshi



Category: Cabin Pressure, John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, Reluctant Persuaders (BBC Radio)
Genre: Christmas Party, F/M, Gen, M/M, MJN is family, so is everyone else apparently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-14 06:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13583790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TomatoFujoshi/pseuds/TomatoFujoshi
Summary: Arthur invites Douglas and Martin for Christmas at their house.How come there are suddenly 10 people in Carolyn's living room.((This is the worst summary but my creativity is dead))





	Please put your Secret Santa title here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rachelvanbora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rachelvanbora/gifts).



> I am very very sorry this is so late.   
> I wrote myself into about 19 holes and got stuck... But once I had this idea no other/shorter/easier ideas would come... 
> 
> (I also failed to properly edit this so I would post it some time in this century)

“Skip! Douglas! Mum said you could come to our Christmas party! Here are your invitations” Arthur said handing an envelope to each of MJN’s pilots.   
“That is a lot of glitter…” Douglas said carefully opening the envelope away from his keyboard.  
“The glitter is paramount!”  
“That it is.” Douglas said picking up a bright pink tree shaped piece of confetti that had fallen on his desk.  
“I’m not sure I can make it. My cousin is coming over and Theresa already booked her flight”  
“Oh are we no longer good enough to fly royalty?”  
“We are already doing the trip to Ottawa that day.” Martin answered at the same time as Arthur said “No problem Skip! The bigger the better! My brother is coming too! And Herc. And Mum already said you could bring someone. One person more won’t be a problem”  
“You have a brother?”   
“Yes. He just never comes to visit. But I got him to come this year! It’ll be brilliant!”  
“I’m looking forward to meeting your elusive brother then” Douglas said finally putting down the envelope on the far corner of his desk.   
“I have to ask but I think we’ll be able to make it”   
Arthur ran over to the door to Carolyn’s office shouting through it and knocking “Mum! Martin and Douglas said they would come for Christmas!”

_________________

 

After waking up everyone in the house at 7 in the morning on Christmas Day to open presents Arthur was eagerly decking everything in as much tinsel and decorations as he could. He was only allowed to hang one Mistletoe so he chose to hang it over the love chair. It was already in the name wasn’t it.   
He had been banned from the kitchen but Mum and Herc were a bit better at cooking for people anyways. It was the first Christmas his brother was back after he left for school at 16 and then never came home for the holidays.   
Everything needed to be perfect!

Arthur never remembered his brother as shy or anything. But he was very quiet when he came to the house yesterday. Very careful. This was home wasn’t it? He had brought someone. But he had just been introduced as a friend. But they had still slept together in his childhood bedroom together and had vanished to the attic together after breakfast to look at childhood things. He hoped his brother was digging out the old train sets that were only allowed to be put together in the living room on Christmas, and only until they were 14. Arthur knew they were still around but without his brother they weren’t as much fun so he never went properly looking for them. 

“Arthur!” Came the enthusiastic voice of his brother from the attic.   
“Yes” Arthur said running up the stairs.   
“You kept the trains?”   
“I knew they were around but I haven’t put them up since the last time. Let’s put them in the living room again!”  
“Won’t Mum get annoyed with such a big party coming up?”  
“Nah. I only got limits on the mistletoes. Not the decorations and train sets are brilliant Christmas decorations”   
“Yes! Manager, are you coming? We are putting this together right now.”  
“I was promised pictures”  
“Trains are more important”  
“Of course they are”  
“Trains are paramount!” Arthur agreed.   
“You should see our house…” the Manager scoffed and then stopped on the attic stairs arms full of boxes. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Shit.   
This was not supposed to happen. The Driver had told him that his family couldn’t know about their relationship yet. He had wanted to tell Arthur during their visit but on his own terms and not this early.  
What he had gotten to know of Carolyn and her husband they didn’t seem too bad but this wasn’t his family who knew what lay underneath, and now he had gone and almost outed them. 

Just as the Manager opened his mouth to try and backtrack Arthur spoke up “Ooooh! You are living together that’s brilliant! You are never lonely that way.”  
“Yeah....” the Driver agreed failing to sound as enthusiastic as before “Always good to have someone around”  
“For a bit I was worried that Mum was lonely because she didn’t go on all the trips with us anymore but then Herc came around and she didn’t tell me but I know she was meeting with him, because she send me to a course of understanding people in Ipswich. I got a certificate and everything.”  
“Wow. Do you still have your train building skills then if you spend all that time I was gone understanding people?” The Driver said, ruffling Arthur’s hair and the Manager could hear how relieved he was to get back to a safe topic.  
“Of course! I think. But you are here to help if not. You always were better at it, big brother”  
“That’s why I am a train driver”  
“Is that also why I am still carrying all these boxes alone?” the Manager grumbled but he knew his face would show how little bothered he was by carrying the boxes of train sets while his Driver bonded with his brother. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Under his expert instruction and with minimal grumbling from the Manager it didn’t take long at all to set up the train set in front of the tree. So stopping himself from kissing the Manager right in the middle of the train tracks the Driver dragged the Manager back up to the attic to look at more pictures (well at least that’s what he told Arthur. Maybe they would, in a bit.)

 

____________________

 

Just as Arthur pulled the last bit of tinsel from the box and found the perfect spot for it the doorbell rang. 

“I’ll go get it!” Arthur shouted already halfway to the door.   
“Dear heart. I could hear you running to the door from the moon. You don’t need you to shout too. If you scare the souffles…”   
At that point Arthur stopped listening in favour of opening the door.   
“Hello! Skip! You are early?” Arthur had no idea what time it was but he hugged Martin. It had been too long.  
“Yeah a bit sorry”  
“No problem Mum won’t mind. Come in come in. Hi Theresa. Hi Martin’s Cousin. Hi!”  
“Oh. Yeah. That’s Joe, my cousin and that’s Teddy. I hope it won’t be too much of a problem he came too?”  
“It’s Christmas everyone is welcome! My brother didn’t come alone either! This will be a paramount Christmas Party!”  
“And you are sure it’ll be fine with even more unexpected guests?”  
“Martin, I will save you from the dragon” Theresa said shoving Martin further into the hall so the rest of them could enter completely and close the door.   
“But it’s rude to just bring guests…” Martin said finally moving on his own. 

“It’s no problem Martin. I’ve never had a Christmas dinner where we hadn’t left overs for at least 3 days. It’ll just cut down on how long we are eating this roast for.” Came Carolyn’s voice from the end of the hall, the smell of food wafting out of the now open doorway.   
“Dinner will be ready in 15 minutes so don’t get too comfortable. Arthur wash that glitter off your hands and get your brother” Carolyn said walking straight back into the kitchen and closing the door again

At that Arthur ran up the stairs to get the Driver, leaving the other guests in the hall. But they could find their way to the table on their own. They were family. 

Upstairs Arthur called out for his brother and went straight to the bathroom. His hands really were kind of shimmering from all the tinsel he handled but it was worth it. The living room looked BRILLIANT. 

When his hands were finally clean and he came out of the bathroom his brother was just coming down the attic stairs again. 

“Have you been up there all day? And why are you blushing so much?”  
“We were looking at pictures and forgot the time. Why did I agree. Childhood pictures are always so embarrassing.”  
“You were a cute child. Both of you.” the Manager said adding a silent “Even cuter than you are now, dear Driver” Arthur probably wasn’t supposed to hear but made the Driver blush even more.   
“Come on dinner is almost ready and I still have to introduce you to everyone.”

 

____________________

Introductions went over smoothly and just when the last bowl had been placed on the table the doorbell rang again signaling Douglas’ arrival.   
He arrived with 2 bottles of wine and a bottle of pineapple juice that looked like a wine bottle in all aspects except that it’s contents were murky and yellow.  
“Am I too late?”  
“No you are just on time so come in, take your coat off and sit down so we can start eating before everything is cold” Carolyn said ushering Douglas inside taking the bottles and setting them down on a side table. 

Another round of introductions was in order and while the Driver had instantly liked Herc his instincts told him to be wary of Douglas. He seemed friendly enough with everyone but there was something. The Driver had been wrong about people before. More often than not that was the case. Harmless personality quirks like being a bit too careful with words, too confident had always made the driver anxious.   
It was just small things, but they were things that made certain people so good at flying under the radar, or at times crashing through the radar and convincing everyone it was still working perfectly fine. 

Over the course of dinner it became clear that Douglas was nothing like he seemed at first. He was more fatherly towards Arthur than even Herc was and the two of them spend a portion of pudding talking about the vintage of their pineapple juice. That edge he had when he came in was completely gone around Arthur, revealing something completely different to what the Driver had thought would hide there.   
The Driver wouldn’t be a fan of anyone that pinged on his radar as fast as a 2 course meal but he could make allowances for some people. 

____________________

 

After the table had been cleared and everything was packed away, which only took a few minutes as a group effort, they all wandered into the living room.   
Carolyn took one look at the mistletoe above the love seat and settled onto the big sofa, Herc following.   
Arthur and the Driver settled on the floor around the train set and started it up while the Manager mumbled something about throwing out his back like that as he settled into the armchair closest to the Driver doing his best to not look at him with heart eyes and maybe even socialise with the others a bit. 

Martin and Theresa settled on the other end of the sofa sitting together close enough that another person would have probably fit onto it, but Douglas moved to sit in the other arm chair sitting directly across from the Manager.   
Which left only the loveseat open for Joe and Teddy but they didn’t seem to mind. The Manager stared at the mistletoe as the two of them just walked over to it Teddy talking to Joe in a way that reminded the Manager of Arthur a lot and while he hadn’t known both for very long he thought if the two ever became good friend it could be really good or really bad. Probably depended on what they were doing with their time together. 

As soon as they sat down in the love seat Arthur looked up from where he had been concentrating on the trains and pointed at the mistletoe “You have to kiss”  
There was some discussion going on going on between Joe and Teddy but the Manager was torn between watching the Driver’s reaction and the reaction of everyone else. 

What happened in the end was that Joe kissed Teddy on the cheek to which Arthur started arguing that it wasn’t a proper mistletoe kiss until Carolyn stepped in.   
“Dear heart, they can kiss however they want and you know that.”  
“Yes mum”

Well that was anti-climatic. But the look on the Driver’s face said it was anything but for him. The manager didn’t know any of these people well enough to know what the Driver had seen in that short exchange, but he did know the Driver well enough that it wasn’t a bad kind of stunned. It looked closer to the look he had gotten after he had converted the second guest room into what would become the train room while the Driver was at work. 

The evening wound down without any more big revelations. The only time the food and wine induced calmness was disrupted after they had finally opened the presents was when Arthur tried to turn the whole party into one big sleepover while Carolyn and Douglas tried to get Martin to give up the keys to the rental car so Douglas could drive him, Theresa, Teddy and Joe home.

After that everything wound down fast and when the Manager was almost asleep he heard the Driver mumble “I’m going to tell both tomorrow”   
“Okay” the Manager answered kissing the Driver before settling down and falling asleep.

____________________

 

The next morning the Driver woke up feeling nervous. It took a moment to remember why but when he did he stopped to think for a moment.  
No matter how sure he had been the night before, alcohol had been involved.   
Was this really what he wanted to do? He had just come home for the first time in 15 years, but taking stock of all the evidence and his own feelings he thought: Yes. No matter how nice it was to be home he knew he could live without it. And he would rather come home next time and not have to look at the unused air mattress across the room, than lie for longer just to have 2 or 3 more people at any family gatherings. 

“Stop fidgeting” the Manager interrupted his thoughts “You don’t have to tell them if you don’t want to. We can just go home or stay here whatever”   
“But I want to. I’m just nervous. I’m pretty sure nothing will happen but you never know, you know?”  
“I do in fact know” the Manager said deadpan as if the Driver hadn’t been there for most of the times the Manager had had to come out to people. “Well no more sleep if you are fidgeting this much. Shall we go see if there is any coffee?”  
“Good idea” the Driver was torn between wanting to get this over with and never leaving this room again. So instead he stalled by checking if everything important was already packed in case there was the need for a hasty escape. 

 

When they made their way downstairs a few minutes later everyone else was already gathered in the kitchen. Herc cooking breakfast while Arthur was fiddling with the coffeemaker. Carolyn was sitting at the table chatting with both of them and was the first to notice them.   
“Good Morning”  
The Driver wanted to instinctively pull his hand from where he was holding the Manager’s, but then decided against it because he wanted the reassurance and they would know soon anyways. All it did was make him twitch in a way that made Carolyn look at their joined hands raising her eyebrows. 

“Uh. Good morning… So... I have something to tell you?” Now everyone was looking at him “The Manager and I are together…”  
“BRILLIANT! Congratulations!” Arthur came around the island to hug them both at the same time.   
“Thank you for telling me” Carolyn said “Arthur finish the coffee you can continue hugging people after breakfast”  
“See it wasn’t too bad” the Manager said before pulling the stunned Driver to a chair and pushing him into it.


End file.
